I’m not afraid of flying; I just fear I’m going to die. I think I’m – vulnerable. I admit it. I don’t fly. I got claustrophobia. I don’t go in high buildings. I don’t do those things. I’m just myself, whatever that is. – John Madden
We need to let the referee’s sole thing be to protect the quarterback and get those late hits out of there. They even have a stat on television that says ‘knockdowns.’ Knockdowns means that you knock him down after he throws the ball. The assumption is, if it’s legal, we’ll make excuses for them. – John Madden
Football isn’t nuclear physics, but it’s not so simple that you can make it simple. It takes some explaining to get it across. – John Madden
Sports has always been a pass-through. You pay for something, and then you pass it through to television, you pass it through to advertisers, or you pass it through to season-ticket holders, luxury boxes and then the fans. Then it all adds up, and you take in more than you pass out. – John Madden
If you go back to the history of the ‘Madden’ game, I was probably on the cover of it half the time. So if I was to believe there was a curse, I would also have to believe I’d been cursed. And I’ve never had that feeling. – John Madden
Discipline is knowing what you’re supposed to do and doing it as best you can… On third down and short yardage, the Raiders don’t jump offside. That’s discipline – not a coat and tie, not a clean shave. – John Madden
I never watched TV because I was always doing a game. I didn’t have any experience to be home watching games. I didn’t know how to do it. Brent Musburger and those guys could sit and watch every game and know the scores. And I was amazed and said, ‘I’d like to have something like that someday.’ – John Madden
I’ve often said, ‘If I had one drive to win a game to this day, and I had a quarterback to pick, I would pick Kenny.’ Snake was a lot cooler than I was. He was a perfect quarterback and a perfect Raider. When you think about the Raiders, you think about Ken Stabler. – John Madden
If you look at tailgating, everyone does it. It’s for everyone who likes to cook outdoors. It could be a 4th of July picnic. – John Madden
Even when I was a little kid, I hated to dress up. I hated to put on regular shoes. I wanted to play all the time. I hate to wear any kind of coat or sweater. I’ve never liked hot. I’ve never liked to be warm. – John Madden
The only things that smell good are fat and sugar. Tofu being boiled doesn’t smell good. Anything that smells good is fattening. – John Madden
I was introduced to the Turducken in New Orleans. And it wasn’t Thanksgiving. Glenn at the Gourmet Butcher Block brought it by, and I had never heard of it or had seen one, and they put it in the booth, and it smelled so good that I had to taste it. And it was good. Then Thanksgiving came, and we got one in addition to the traditional turkey. – John Madden
I was an old tackle riding around talking to people about sports. Like I’ve said to a lot of people over the years, ‘I only go where old tackles go, and if an old tackle does not belong there, I’m not going.’ – John Madden
I don’t know that the referee can be watching holding on the offensive line and get back to the quarterback. I think watching the quarterback is a full-time job. – John Madden
I like to hear about what people do. That’s more interesting than talking about what the hell I do. – John Madden
I’ve got five grandkids. They play baseball, they play football, they play basketball. I go to all the games. You always have that urge to say something when you’re watching them. But I’ve learned to keep it to myself. I’ve blurted out some things and embarrassed myself. – John Madden
Some day we’re gonna have interactive television where you can pick the shot that you want. You can watch defense, or you can watch the end-zone shot, or you can watch an isolated shot of Terance Mathis or whoever you want to. Because right now, the only thing that you watch is what the producer or director decides to show you. – John Madden
Both of my sons used to coach high school football. When they started, I’d say things I shouldn’t have. So I learned my lesson. – John Madden
That’s the biggest gap in sports, the difference between the winner and the loser of the Super Bowl. – John Madden
Nobody, not even the head coach, would do anything to the football unilaterally, such as adjust the amount of pressure in a ball, without the quarterback not knowing. It would have to be the quarterback’s idea. – John Madden
Thursday night football is here to stay. So we’re looking at ways to make it safer. Now they’re playing division games, so you limit travel. Now the question is, should you play Sunday night before a Thursday night? – John Madden
It takes about three times as long to explain to someone why you won’t give them an autograph as it does to actually give them an autograph. – John Madden
I’ve always said winning’s the great deodorant, and conversely, when you have a bad record, everything stinks, and everything starts to unravel, and everything falls apart. – John Madden
Coaches have to watch for what they don’t want to see and listen to what they don’t want to hear. – John Madden
I was in New York on September 11 when those planes hit the World Trade Center. At the time, it seemed like it was a local thing. But three or four days later, by the time we drove across the country in the bus, we realized it wasn’t a local thing. You could really feel the states become united. We became the United States of America. – John Madden
The best thing about getting older is knowing history. The longer you live, the longer you have been in a sport, the more you know, and the more you know where things started. – John Madden
I have this set-up at my house where I have one big movie theater screen that’s 9 ft. by 16 ft. Then, I have nine 63-inch monitors around it; four on either side and one underneath. So I get all nine one o’clock games, and I can switch them onto the big screen. That’s what I do on the Sundays during the season. – John Madden
